PORTLAND, Maine—A small but growing number of Maine high schools, from
Washington Academy in East Machias to Noble High School in Berwick, are adding
Chinese to their menu of language courses.

At Yarmouth High School,
17-year-old Zach Hynes has been working with other students to persuade the
school board to make a course in Chinese available next fall.

"Everything you hear in the
news now is about China and the Chinese role in global economics and global
affairs," Hynes said. "In terms of global affairs and global customs, Chinese is
just a very useful language."

Chinese is now offered at 10
secondary schools in Maine, six of which started courses this school year. The
Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone was the first to teach
Chinese, in 1995, and Westbrook added the language two years later.

Other schools that now offer
it include Bangor High School, Erskine Academy in South China, Fryeburg Academy,
Piscataquis Community High School in Guilford, Waynflete School in Portland and
John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor.

Chinese, which is spoken by a
quarter of the world's population, has become the third most common language in
the United States, after English and Spanish, according to Primary Source, a
nonprofit organization that promotes international education in U.S. schools.

A recent conference at Colby
College on "Learning Chinese in Maine" drew about 120 educators and students,
with 34 Maine school districts represented, said Ryan Bradeen, director of Maine
programs for Primary Source.

"Americans need to know more
about the world in order to become efficient global competitors and global
actors," Bradeen said. "It is simply not enough to be able to know about
ourselves."

Last month, Maine Education
Commissioner Susan Gendron signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese
government educational agency to promote educational collaboration between China
and Maine, such as having Chinese teachers come to the state to teach, said Don
Reutershan, world languages specialist with the state Department of Education.

"We need to realize that our
world is not what it used to be," he said. "Historically, much of our curriculum
is Eurocentric in terms of curriculum. It's time to reposition ourselves."

While 214 Maine high school
students now study Chinese, it appears that more would like to do so. Yuhong
Sun, a native of China who has lived in Maine for nearly 10 years, began
teaching Chinese language and culture at Noble High School this fall.

"So many kids wanted to sign
up -- over 30 kids," Sun said.

In Yarmouth, school officials
are considering a plan to allow the high school to apply for a grant that would
help pay for a language teacher from China. The proposal, which would cost the
town about $6,000, will be seriously considered for next year's budget,
Superintendent Ken Murphy said.

Hynes, who graduates in the
spring, won't get to study Chinese in high school. But he will be happy if the
proposal he has worked on for two years finally becomes a reality.

His hope, he said, is that one
day at Yarmouth High, Chinese "will be almost as mainstream as French and
Spanish."